Is there a better way to start the year than to make a plan of all the places you’d love to visit?

I made a similar post last year – you can find it here if you can look past the unformatted mess of pre-redesign Girlglobalising – and I’m pleased to say that I managed to tick off a fair few.

The most recent being our adventure off to NYC, which is also the biggest trip I have done in a long while. But we also made it to Berlin, Copenhagen and Cornwall. So not a bad year for someone trying to fit travel around a full time job!

Let’s see what’s on the travel wishlist for 2017.

Canada

Canada very nearly made it onto the list last year, but it felt a bit of a stretch when I knew I wouldn’t be doing both NYC and Canada. It seemed silly to set my heart on something that was 99% not going to happen. But this year who knows, and since I’ve crossed America off the list (but only for the time being!) then Canada is looking even better than before.

Bali

I may have added Bali to the travel wishlist because I’ve been reading Eat Pray Love (it’s taken me forever to finish), but also because of the content coming from the Little Magpie and Sinead Crowe, who have both been to Asia recently. My desire to visit Asia has grown in recent years – the more travel I do, the more I’d like to visit those destinations that seemed too adventurous before.

Majorca

The majority of the holidays that Dom and I have been on have been city breaks. Almost always over and long weekend to avoid cutting into my annual leave too much. They always go at break neck speed, both time and sightseeing-wise and are over before we know it. Even our trip to Italy involved racing around Rome during a heatwave! This year I think we are both in agreement that a much slower paced summer holiday is in order. With limited city exposure and snorkelling and watersports and time by a swimming pool. I’ve got my heart set on Majorca.

The UK

Although we’ve done pretty well for little weekend trips in the UK, ticking off Norwich and Brighton, not to mention daytrips to London and my most recent trip to York, there’s always more to see on your doorstep. A travel wishlist wouldn’t be complete if you didn’t include seeing as much of your own country as you can!

There’s always more I can add to the list, but it might be best to leave it there for now. It’s my birthday in a few weeks, so maybe I’ll even arrange a mini getaway for then. Let me know what’s on your travel wishlist for 2017 – I’m always game for some more inspiration.

New York City is a bit of an indescribable place. Actually it’s describable by words such as big, loud, over the top – but I think these words can be used to describe any major city and don’t really do New York justice.

It’s the sheer volume of buildings, the fact that everyday things such as buses, cars, personalities, even sandwiches are twice the size of their London counterparts that make it such a city to behold. If you caught my first New York post you’ll know that we didn’t arrive on the best of evenings (it certainly wasn’t the ‘Trump’ card I was hoping for…) and the following day was pretty dreary as a result.

After the initial shock wore off we managed to fill our time with a whole host of New York City attractions, as well as exploring some new areas that I’d not seen before. On the first evening I was convinced that New York’s shine had worn slightly thin after my first visit about ten years ago, but a few days later and I’m back to frantically planning how much we could squeeze into our few days there.

I have another city guide planned where I’ll go into far more detail about what we got up to, where we stayed and more, so keep your eyes peeled for that. But for the mean time I thought I would share a few of my favourite photos with you. The photos of the Oculus below are some of my favourites from the whole trip – what an insane building just to house a Subway station and shopping mall. There were a couple of photos I was determined to get, some of the more iconic shots you often see of New York City like the skyline from the river and the Brooklyn Bridge. Although I didn’t get a great photo of a pretzel stand (or have a pretzel for myself!) but that’s just another reason to head back some time.

I’m back! I can only apologise for the blogging hiatus around here. After getting back from New York at the start of the week, I’m not exactly sure where the days and evenings have gone. A mixture of jet lag, unpacking, washing, and heading back to the office have taken up my time and I’m only now beginning to look at all the photos I took whilst away.

Myself and Dom were a little bit nervous about the trip on the few days leading up to it. Having scoured the internet for the most reasonably priced flights we could find, it was only after having booked and paid for them that we realised that we’d be landing on the night of the election. And we all know how that has ended. I’ll try not to make this a political post but let’s just say if I was American, I would have been crying on the subway as well.

I thought I would start off the New York themed posts with a round up of the photos I posted on Instagram, just in case you haven’t seen them already. I generally take all the photos I post on Instagram on my iPhone, so you’ll have to excuse me if they are slightly lacking in quality this time. I have sooo many photos to sift through, but I’m planning lots of posts that will hopefully convey the great time we both had.

So, I hope you enjoy this first little titbit of NYC action! You can follow me on Instagram as I’ll be sharing New York photos on there for quite a while, and on Bloglovin to catch all the new posts coming up. In the meantime Dom have made a mashup video with bits of film and photos he took. Make sure you give it a watch!

Just a quick little post from me this morning as I’m off to New York City today! I’m unbelievably excited – it’s a trip I’ve been dreaming about for years. I will make sure to take lots of photos and get all the recommendations you might need, either for inspiration or if you’re planning a trip sometime soon. If anyone has any last minute recommendations of must see things, then please do let me know.

Hopefully I’ll still be able to Instagram, Tweet and maybe even get a little bit of content out for you while I’m there, so keep your eyes peeled on Bloglovin.

For the longest time I have been banging on about visiting Brighton. I’m not entirely sure why the idea suddenly popped up and I couldn’t let go of it. Possibly because I haven’t visited for years and recently it’s been featured on many of my favourite blogs, either as a destination or as a hometown.

With it’s coastal location and independent business scene it’s a place that is right up my street. On the way down I was struggling to remember the last time I had visited (answer: so long ago that I can’t recall) but I was excited to revisit the seafront and explore the Lanes. In the end we only managed one night but man, it was lovely and the perfect way to spend your days off for the daily grind. Here are a few photos and recommendations, as well as places that I’ve heard are amazing but sadly didn’t get a chance to visit on this occasion. But all the more reason to pop back another time, hey!

Where to stay: Now we were incredibly last minute with our trip so ended up paying a fortune for a pretty standard hotel, so I’m not going to leave that as the recommended choice to make your trip extra special. But the place we really wanted to stay at is the Artists Residence hotel. I’ve heard great things from both friends who have stayed and from various blog posts. Next time I’ll be more organised and book a room in this small quirky hotel.

There is also The Grand and the Harbour Hotel which both look pretty amazing, and of course Airbnb will have some gems on offer.

What to do: We really lucked out with the weather this weekend so by the time we got to Brighton we had a little bit of lunch sat outside, and then headed down to the seafront. Brighton is a pebble beach and while that’s not ideal for sunbathing in the summer, it’s great for watching the waves and people go by on a sunny afternoon – and no sandy bums!

I highly recommend having a wander around the Lanes and popping into the cute independent shops. It’s also where you’ll find Snoopers Paradise and it’s infamous photo booth somewhere inside.

Take a stroll around the Pavilion Gardens and marvel at Brighton’s answer to the Taj Mahal before popping into the Brighton Art Gallery and Museum.

If you fancy getting out of town for a bit then I hear Lewes is a very nice small town with all the Sussex charm to be had. Or alternatively take a walk up Beachy Head for the best views around.

Where to eat: I did a small amount of research on where’s good to eat in Brighton, only to find that it’s overloaded with fantastic independent choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, and cake. We stopped in on Bread & Milk for lunch which is a charmingly small cafe in the north of the Lanes.

Later we had a spot of tea and cake in Cafe Coho, also in the Lanes – they also have another location in Hove if you’re over that way. Small Batch Coffee is a little local chain worth checking out too.

There’s plenty of options for dinner too. We opted for Franco Manca, which is not necessarily independent to Brighton but their only other location is in Brixton. I have to say it was some of the cheapest and best pizza I’ve had. Any overpriced pizza is just going to be unforgivable now.

Other places I’ve heard are worth a visit are Fatto O Mano for more pizza, Plateau for all the meat, and Food for Friends for excellent vegetarian food.

So there we have it, 24 hours in Brighton. If you’re after a few more recommendations then I will gladly point you in the direction of Suzie from Hello October and Anna from The Anna Edit, both Brighton residents and have some very knowledgeable posts on the subject.

Make sure to check out my Instagram for more photos from the weekend and follow me on Bloglovin to never miss a post on here!